OT - World Cup Semifinal #2 NED v. ARG, ESPN, 3:00pm CDT
Well, after yesterday's completely terrifying beatdown of Brazil by Germany, I have no clue what will happen today. I think Holland has a more complete team, but Messi is the best in the world (or top two). It's going to come down to how often Robben gets away with diving versus keeping the ball away from Messi.
NED 3 - 1 ARG*
______________________
* Not to be taken seriously, unless it happens.
My heart picks Argentina, but my brain is picking the Netherlands.
It's the opposite for me, I've wanted the Netherlands to win since I was a young boy, 40 years ago. But it's difficult to say they will stop Messi.
Did anyone else see the wager on Reddit that someone placed on yesterday's game, out of curiousity? $20 on the score and a Khedira goal, and well...
I wonder what the odds were on the 7-1 without Khedira scoring...just insane.
999-1 at one site apparently:
My favorite is still the Finnish guy who made a bet that Luiz Suarez would bite someone in the World Cup
Coming into the tournament Luis Suarez had played 355 professional matches and bitten two people. Estimating from that you'd get 177:1 for a single match and roughly 60:1 for the tournament.
Of course it's not so simple for a low-frequency event like this but the quoted odds assume a lower chance of a bite at the WC than in his career as a whole, by a factor of three. You'd think a bookie writing a sucker bet like this would be careful to err in the other direction.
Since I'm traveling to Amsterdam next weekend, I would really like NED to win this one. I can't imagine the excitement of watching the final match with the locals. If it happens, I'll have to find the proper shade of orange to wear (Syracuse? Clemson? Illinois?)
Just buy something with the Netherlands on it. Surely you don't have a superman-esque closet with every NCAA team's apparel in it???
http://www.worldsoccershop.com/shop-by-national-team-netherlands-nation…
I love the Netherlands kit. If I were you I would just buy their home jersey. It might add to the memories of your trip.
I have a few Illini jerseys and a few KNVB (Koenig Nederland Vootball) jerseys and the orange is very similar!!
Oranje, Oranje, Oranje!!
I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding Dutch apparel when you go there. I flew through the Amsterdam airport last spring and they were selling Dutch soccer jerseys right there.
Again with the CDT? Can't you see what that did to your prognostications yesterday?
LOL - from now on, I'm using zulu time.
/s
Di Maria's effectiveness/health could be the real difference. Machirano should get exposed.
Van Persie wakes up....
Netherlands 4 , Argentina 2
Nigel "THE MESSI KILLER" de Jong wins it for Netherlands
I thought he was hurt
Yes, he is, as is van Persie.
Most crucial player for Netherlands in my opinion. He's the guy the can shut Messi down. Shut Messi down and the Dutch win.
I like the Netherlands to win it (plus their uniforms are awesome) but it would be nice to see Messi win a world cup
Surprised at all the high score predictions. Normally at this stage, the team that scores first gets all "Italy/Germany" and it becomes a slow paced game. We'll see.
Argentina has won every game by 1 goal and NED has been behind 3 of their games per announcer.
Argentina v Brazil in the 3rd place game WOULD be fascinating from a "how does Brazil bounce back after its demolition versus its hated rival" sort of thing. Often the 3rd place game is a lot more fun to watch than the final since its very open.
Seeing an all European final on South American soil, likewise would be interesting. But so would seeing a bunch of Brazilians rooting hard for Germany in a final after that team destroyed them :)
...that the second half of the "going all Italy/Germany" meme would have died yesterday.
Messi is great to watch, but I can't stand how Argentina plays overall. First significant 'foul' of the day should be a yellow card on Perez for diving. Unfortunately more to come from Argentina in that regard. Fingers crossed Netherlands 2-1
Argentina is widely known at least in spanish speaking countries for their "colmillo" or "garra" (fang or claw) which only means that they like to dive, foul and take advantage of situations (hand of god for example) as is Uruguay, they're not at all saints.
They have had the better chances thus far.
TIL Jurgen Klinsmann's family has a bakery in Stuttgart
and our bakery in Stuttgart is spot on: pic.twitter.com/8tTsqJgcDa
— Jürgen Klinsmann (@J_Klinsmann) July 9, 2014
Sweet. Literally.
I like the American flag outside. Nice touch.
I wonder if they had USA jersey cookies during our matches?
Both squads are afraid of a repeat of yesterday lol
I played this match up yesterday on FIFA and my friend committed a penalty with Vlarr. I almost thought the same thing was going to happen.
This is only the fifth WC in South America and the first in 36 years, so I don't know how relevant that factoid is.
All the Brazil chicks are home in tears.
Wow, at this point in the match yesterday there were 5 goals scored already.
I don't think the lesson of not getting too careless was lost on these two teams.
He may be the best player in the world, but Messi looks like the guy that does your taxes.
Messi, Di Maria, Mascherano, Lavezzi...
Never been but Buenos Aires is supposedly the most "European" city in the Americas.
They also are perceived as arrogant by their fellow South Americans--or so I have been told by South Americans I have worked with.
A buddy of mine loved Buenos Aires. He was there for about a year for business, and he said BA was way better than Rio. In fact, he liked Sao Paolo better than Rio. Beautiful women galore in BA.
It's a shame their govt is so horrid constantly and their economic stability is so bad. It would be a very nice country for a lot of ex-pats but the level of corruption and occasional 30% inflation hurt its stability. When you cant be sure you can take your money out of the bank that hurts your credibility.
Not sure if it's the most European of all cities of the Americas (I might nominate Quebec City), but BA is definitely much more European in population/culture than most Latin American cities. Argentina as a whole is like 90% white.
Yeah I was thinking Montreal might give it a run for the money. Just when I see photos of downtown BA it looks like any street in a major European city with the buildings, the architecture, the squares, etc. I havent seen enough of Montreal / QC downtown to know they are built the same. Probably areas of Quebec are right up there too.
Big difference between Montreal and Quebec City. Montreal is much more of a melting pot (there is a sizeable non-white population) and looks very North American, with skyscrapers and all that. If it weren't for the language, it wouldn't seem all that different from a lot of other cities in the U.S./Canada. (Of course, the language is a pretty big deal.)
Quebec City on the other hand really feels like you've gone to Europe. In the center of town all the buildings are hundreds of years old, there's stone walls around the old city, and basically the whole population is not just white, but of the same ethnicity (French). It's very unique.
Cool - never knew that.
So when US invades Canada QC will be the last stand with the stone walls? ;)